Search - Otto; Or, Up With Dead People on DVD

More than a typical zombie movie

L. Miller | BC Canada | 02/10/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When I saw that there was a "gay zombie movie" being shown at my local film festival, it sounded hilarious and I knew I wanted to see it. Zombie movies have always scared and intrigued me , and are usually silly and campy to boot. However, this movie delivered much more than mindless thrills and gore. It's hard to go into too much detail about why this movie is so incredible without spoiling the ending, but this movie has heartwrenching commentary on homophobia, mental illness, societal alienation and much more. Many issues are brought to the surface and there will be at least one that will strike a chord with viewers. Not to say this movie didn't have screamingly funny or gory moments - it delivered in that department, too. Something for everyone!"

Bruce LaBruce Triumphs Again!

Patrick | WA state - USA | 02/07/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This film is easily my favorite Bruce LaBruce work to date. Everything about it is more than I had expected and left me totally satisfied with my new LaBruce fix. A unique storyline and soundtrack - superb timeless costuming - beautiful locations around the city of Berlin - it all came together for a sometimes humorous and very touching gay Zombie story and their gay Zombie sexcapades. The bonus stuff include the Director's insightful commentary - deleted Zombie sex scenes (equal to those in his feature "Skin Gang") - alternative campaigns and the original theatrical trailer. What more could I want? Bruce has brought together a group of talented Bohemians to create this work of art as only Europeans can provide. Needless to say I love it. Six Gold Stars.

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Bruce LaBruce's Gay Zombie

Amos Lassen | Little Rock, Arkansas | 01/03/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Otto: Or Up With Dead People"

Bruce Labruce's Gay Zombie

Amos Lassen

There is something about Bruce LaBruce's films--they are semi-porn, they are, in many cases. overlong, and they have a certain charm. "Otto: Or Up With Dead People" fits those characteristics. "Otto" is also fun and highly original--it shocks, it makes you laugh, it has sex and it is movie you will not so forget.
Otto is German and a handsome and sensitive guy with an identity crisis. He is a Goth zombie who wanders the streets of the city, never sleeping. One day he finds himself on a remote highway and has no idea of where he came from or where he is going. He manages to hitch a ride to Berlin and settles in an abandoned amusement park. He begins to explore Berlin is discovered by Medea Yam, an underground filmmaker. Medea wants to make a documentary about Otto and enlists her girlfriend, Hella Bent, and his brother, Adolph to help. Medea believes that Otto represents the personification of the effects of consumerism on modern society. "Up with Dead People" is to be an epic political-porn-zombie movie starring Fritz Fritze whom she convinces to allow Otto to stay in his guest bedroom. Otto suddenly discovers that he has a wallet that contains information about his past before he was dead and became a zombie and he begins to remember facts about his ex-boyfriend, Rudolf, whom he agrees to meet but the results are devastating.
Bruce Labruce is, by no means, an average film maker. "Otto" is an unusual movie and should not be taken seriously. Labruce makes fun of everything in the film and he ridiculers consumerism. He manages to give us porn and violence at the same time but neither is overdone. In fact the sex scenes are quite funny. I have heard that the film was meant to horrify the audience but it amuses and is someone moving instead. The plot is interesting in that it is both linear and convoluted; it is a movie within a movie and therefore standard plot development is not here.
There are a lot of politics here.
Gays seem to love zombies and I can't help but wonder why it has taken so long to have a gay zombie movie. Labruce claims that his inspiration for the movie came from a former boyfriend, a Shia Muslim. It seems that Shias are obsessed with death and they mourn the dead for the first six weeks of each new year and Labruce's boyfriend remarked that he felt that he was already dead.
Labruce wanted his zombie to be sympathetic and so he created Otto as a rebel and outsider who has legitimacy. Labruce's filming technique is often referred to as shoddy and the movie does wander. There are graphic and titillating sex scenes. "Otto" is an interesting look at a new genre in film making.
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